Constructed Views: New Meets Old in Mid-South Cities

Photographer David Wharton's forays into mid-South cities reveal intersections of old and new. As his images look through things (fences, barriers) that are close to the camera and toward things that are farther away, he offers a rough analogue, though often in reverse, of the historical layering process that formed the cityscapes.

Introduction

Since coming to Mississippi in 1999, most of my photographic energies have gone into making images of the social and cultural landscapes of the rural and small-town South. During the spring and summer of 2004, however, I took a break from those kinds of places and photographed in some of the larger cities. For practical reasons, I limited myself to the states of the "mid-South:" Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. I decided to photograph in all of the cities in those states that the 2000 census listed as having populations of 100,000 or more. There were fourteen: Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, and Montgomery in Alabama; Little Rock in Arkansas; Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Orleans, and Shreveport in Louisiana; Jackson in Mississippi; and Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville in Tennessee.

My initial plan was to photograph in two parts of each city: the older downtown areas and places that attracted tourists. In some of the cities, the two overlapped; in others they did not. In both cases, my intention was to explore the intersection of old and new, to see how some of the more traditional aspects of these urban environments had combined with contemporary city life to form newer, but distinctly hybrid, urban spaces.

In the cities where tourist and non-tourist landscapes did not overlap, I found the separate spaces to be very different. In places that did not attract tourists, the physical environment often seemed the result of accidental, haphazard layering. Here, recent events — the pressures of changing cultural values and beliefs — left traces on historical cityscapes that already displayed little, if any, conscious purpose. In a figurative sense, this is probably why so many of the pictures I made of these spaces look through things (fences, barriers, etc.) that are close to the camera and toward things that are farther away — as a rough analogue, though in reverse, to the historical layering process that formed the cityscape.

In the parts of these cities that attracted tourists the physical (visible) space seemed less complicated. These were places consciously designed to appeal to people unfamiliar with the city. Accumulated layers of the past seemed stripped away in favor of making these spaces comprehensible to visitors who didn't know much about them. These were cityscapes I photographed as populated by strangers who are there only temporarily ("just passing through") but are nonetheless in the process of forging a relationship, even if only for purposes of entertainment, between themselves and the world most immediately around them.

Looking back on the project, I think I succeeded to varying degrees in different places, and perhaps not at all in some. Given the fact that I could spend only a day or two in some of the cities (and sometimes had my photographic time curtailed by bad weather), I may have tried to do too much. Even so, I think there are some interesting images here — images that might make us think about how the physical environment accrues around us, how it relates to the local past, and the degree to which that relationship has (or has not) been consciously constructed.

Photo Essay

David Wharton, Big Spring International Park, Huntsville, Alabama.Attracted by a fast-flowing spring, John Hunt, the founder of Huntsville, built a cabin here in 1805. Six years later, Huntsville became the first incorporated town in the Alabama Territory. The spring remained the town’s main water source until the mid-twentieth century. Big Spring Park is located in downtown Huntsville and boasts cherry trees and a red footbridge donated by the Japanese government in 1966, along with decorative gifts from other Cold War US allies. The Big Spring Jam, an annual music festival, has been held here in late September since 1993.

David Wharton, Landscaping, El Dorado Casino Resort, Shreveport, Louisiana.Located on the Red River in northwestern Louisiana, Shreveport was once an important port. With the rise of rail transportation, river traffic ceased almost entirely. Neglected, the river silted up. By 1914, the Red River was no longer navigable and Shreveport's waterfront deteriorated. Today, the downtown and waterfront areas bustle with tourists, most of whom gamble at one of several riverboat casinos. In the distance is the twenty-six-floor Horseshoe Hotel and Casino, across the Red River in Bossier City.

David Wharton, The Tennessee River from the South Gay Street Bridge, Knoxville, Tennessee.

David Wharton, The Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee.In the distance is the Interstate 40 Mississippi River Bridge. The bridge entering the picture from the upper right is the tramway from downtown Memphis to Mud Island River Park.

David Wharton, House on West Vermillion Street, Lafayette, Louisiana.This house is owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette and is used as office space by staff of the Cathedral of St. John, just a few blocks away.

David Wharton, Intersection of Bibb and Commerce Streets, Montgomery, Alabama.

David Wharton, Outdoor Table and Chair, Mobile, Alabama.The building in the background is the twenty-eight-story Riverview Plaza Hotel.

David Wharton, Dry Fountain and Old State Capitol, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.Completed in 1850, this castle-like Gothic Revival structure served as Louisiana's capitol until 1932. Overlooking the Mississippi, it served as a landmark for nineteenth-century riverboat pilots. Mark Twain, one of those pilots, despised its architecture, calling it "a little sham castle" whose "turrets and things" disgraced an "otherwise honorable place." The restored building houses a museum and gift shop.

David Wharton, Renovation, War Memorial Building, Nashville, Tennessee.Opened in 1927, Nashville's War Memorial Building is part of the State Capitol Complex. Inscribed on the courtyard wall are the names of 3,400 Tennesseans who lost their lives in World War I. The inscription on the building's pediment is from President Woodrow Wilson's April 2, 1917 "War Message" to Congress: "America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured."

David Wharton, View from Pedestrian Bridge, Little Rock, Arkansas.Seen from the La Harpe Boulevard pedestrian overpass are Arkansas's Old State Capitol (white building in center), the Peabody Hotel (left background), and the twenty-four-story Bank of America Building (right background). Built in 1842, the Old Capitol is the oldest surviving state capitol west of Mississippi. President Bill Clinton held election night celebrations there in 1992 and 1996.

David Wharton, FedEx Forum from Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee.Shown under construction, FedExForum is home to the National Basketball Association's Memphis Grizzlies, as well as the University of Memphis basketball teams. It was publicly funded at a cost of $250,000,000. Construction began in June 2002, and the building was completed in time for the 2004-5 basketball season. The historical marker in the foreground reads: "Ida B. Wells, 1862-1931. Ida B. Wells crusaded against lynchings in Memphis and the South. In 1892 while editor of the Memphis Free Speech, located in this vicinity, she wrote of the lynching of three Black businessmen. As a result, her newspaper office was destroyed and her life threatened."

David Wharton, Construction Trailer, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.During the summer of 2004, there were a number of construction projects underway in downtown Baton Rouge. Several office buildings were being built, as were a number of condominium complexes that would eventually offer affluent Baton Rouge residents the opportunity to live on the downtown riverfront. Seen in the distance is the spire of St. Joseph's Cathedral, built in 1853, with its Gothic Revival steeple, added in 1891.

David Wharton, Artist's Rendering of RiverView, Shreveport, Louisiana.Like so many southern cities, Shreveport is trying to reinvigorate its downtown. RiverView is an ambitious project that will eventually feature an amphitheatre, decorative fountains, and boat docks. The building in the background, which is located across from the Red River, is the Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in Bossier City.

David Wharton, Intersection of St. Louis and Royal, French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana.Signs of the tourist trade are evident in the French Quarter, even in the early morning hours. Antoine's claims to be the nation's oldest family-run restaurant. Its present-day location at 725 Rue St. Louis is less than a block from where French immigrant Antoine Alciatore opened his first eating establishment in 1840.

David Wharton, Tourist on the Docked Riverboat, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.Modern-day riverboats, decorated like their nineteenth-century predecessors, transport tourists up and down the Mississippi. Docking at towns along the way, they let passengers off for an hour or two of eating, shopping, and sightseeing.

David Wharton, Fashion Model, Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, Alabama.Birmingham's Sloss Furnaces operated as a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971. In 1981 it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and now houses an interpretive museum. The site can be rented to host private functions. On the day I was at Sloss Furnaces, a regional photographers' organization had arranged to hold a "fashion shoot."

David Wharton, Tourists and Rockets, US Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.The US Space and Rocket Center opened in 1970 on land donated by the US Army. It claims to be the world's largest space attraction. It also houses the graves of Able and Baker, monkeys who flew on a 1959 Jupiter test flight. Located several miles west of Huntsville, the Space Center's tall rockets are easily visible from downtown.

David Wharton, College Boys, Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Louisiana.Strip joints and sex shows are among Bourbon Street's famous attractions.

David Wharton, Tourist Photographer, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.On Sunday, September 15, 1963—shortly before morning services were to begin—the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four African American girls. The church, long one of Birmingham's most important institutions, played a central role in the struggle for racial equality. Today, along with other local sites (including Kelly Ingram Park and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, across the street), Sixteenth Street Baptist is part of Birmingham's Civil Rights District, attracting visitors from across the nation and world.

David Wharton, Tourists and Legends Corner, Lower Broadway, Nashville.Legends Corner bills itself as "an authentic downtown honky-tonk." It is one of several bars on Nashville's Lower Broadway catering to tourists. The brick building in the left background is the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. The alley between the Ryman and the back of the bars on Lower Broadway is called Ryman Alley. Country music lore holds that Ryman Alley was the scene of several legendary jams (and more than a few fistfights), as musicians ducked into the bars' back doors before and after performances. The skyscraper in the far background is the Bell South Building.

David Wharton, Tourists Posing for Pictures, New Orleans, Louisiana.St. Louis Cathedral, at the head of Jackson Square, is in the background. The current cathedral, completed in 1851, is on the site of earlier churches, built in 1727 and 1794. Jackson Square is in the heart of the French Quarter, the oldest part of the city and the hub of New Orleans's tourist trade.

David Wharton, Speeding Car, Farish Street, Jackson, Mississippi.Just a few blocks west of the State Capitol is Farish Street, at the heart of what was once Jackson's main African American business district. Many of the Farish Street stores are now abandoned despite efforts to refurbish the area as an "entertainment district."

David Wharton, Baseball Figures, Autozone Park, Memphis, Tennessee.Completed in 2000, with a seating capacity of 14,320, Autozone Park is home to the Memphis Redbirds, the AAA affiliate of the National League St. Louis Cardinals. Among the first of a wave of minor league ballparks built in center-city locations, Autozone Park is within walking distance of the Beale Street entertainment district and Front Street, the site of Memphis's once-bustling "cotton row" facing the Mississippi River. In the right background is the Peabody Hotel, founded in 1869, and built on a grand scale in its present location in 1925. The hotel closed in 1970 but was refurbished and reopened in 1981. The reopening of the Peabody was the first step in the revival of a city center that was virtually abandoned during the 1960s and 1970s. Today, downtown Memphis is a busy place.

David Wharton, View from the USS Alabama, Mobile, Alabama.A World War II battleship, the Alabama has been one of Mobile's most popular tourist attractions since 1969, when it was permanently moored in Mobile Bay. It has served as the site for several made-for-TV movies.

David Wharton, Inflatable Figures, Rock City, Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.Located on top of Lookout Mountain, Rock City is only six miles from downtown Chattanooga. Opened in 1932, it became a popular tourist destination through mass roadside advertising: the phrase "See Rock City" painted on more than 900 barns throughout the southeast, as far west as Texas, and as far north as Michigan. On a clear day, supposedly, one can see seven states - Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama - from Rock City.

David Wharton, Confederate Memorial, Alabama State Capitol Grounds, Montgomery, Alabama.For several months in early 1861, Montgomery was the capital of the newly-formed Confederate States of America. The house in which Jefferson Davis and his family lived is now preserved as "the Confederate White House" and is located across the street from Alabama's State Capitol Complex. Some Montgomerians are still proud to call their city "the cradle of the Confederacy."

David Wharton, Pedestrian, Knoxville, Tennessee.A pedestrian trudges up West Main Street toward the Knox County Courthouse. The building above him is the First Tennessee Bank, connected by footbridge to the steel and glass Riverview Tower, housing several of Knoxville's most prestigious law firms.

David Wharton, Lunch Hour, Little Rock, Arkansas.Office workers walk along Little Rock's West Markham Street. The Peabody Hotel is in the left background, the Bank of America Building to the right.

David Wharton, Cajun Ball Bonds, Lafayette, Louisiana.Lafayette is often called the capital of Acadiana, that part of south Louisiana settled in the late eighteenth century by French-descended refugees fleeing British rule in Canada. Today's "Cajun" culture is known for music, cuisine, and joie de vivre. Crawfish (like the one behind bars in the picture) are among the region's most popular foods.

David Wharton, Mississippi State Fair, Jackson, Mississippi.Held annually in October, the Mississippi State Fair draws visitors from throughout the South. Livestock competitions are among its most popular attractions.

David Wharton, Woman on Cell Phone and Construction Site, Chattanooga, Tennessee.Situated on a Tennessee River bend, Chattanooga has been renovating its riverfront. This spot, along a popular jogging trail, is part of the projected Arts District. The columned building in the background, built in 1904, is the original home of the Hunter Museum of American Art. The construction site to the left, seen here during the summer of 2004, was a major expansion for the Hunter. Completed in 2005, the new museum is a spectacularly modern structure, perched high on the river bluff.